Jonas Gössling: Meet flowkey’s Co-Founder and CEO

flowkey CEO Jonas Goessling at the piano.

Sometime in 2020, as an adult learner, I started to play the piano. But during those early stages of the pandemic, when in-person lessons weren't possible, I had to research online options.
And after enrolling in a course at Berklee Online (Keyboard for the Electronic Musician, which I'll write about in a separate post) I also subscribed to flowkey: a piano learning software launched in 2015 by Jonas Gössling, Alexander Heesing, and Ahmed Hassan.

According to flowkey's website, the three friends shared the same goal: "to make learning music easy and fun for everyone."

And they did deliver on that promise: flowkey helped me to learn songs in a new way with a unique interface; more than five million users are currently using the software. Hence, I wanted to find out who was behind this venture and was able to conduct a short interview with flowkey's CEO and co-founder, Jonas Gössling.

Interview: Max Wittrock

Diatonic: Jonas, thanks for taking the time for this interview! Before we talk about flowkey and your entrepreneurial journey, I'd like to start with some piano-related questions.
Your piano: Digital or acoustic?

Jonas Gössling: Neither ;) I play on a Yamaha Hybrid Piano, which is an acoustic piano but it can be switched to digital. So it has the best of both worlds. 

Diatonic: Do you still find enough time to play for yourself? And if yes: Do you practice and play at home or in the office or somewhere else entirely? 

Jonas Gössling: I mostly practice at home, but also sometimes in the office. During the past Christmas season I played a lot, but now it’s less than I would like to. 

Diatonic: What piece of music are you currently playing or working on? 

Jonas Gössling: Right now I’m working on Bach’s Prelude No. 3 in C sharp major. I love that piece.   

Diatonic: And is there any piece in particular you would like to work on in 2023? 

Jonas Gössling: Yes. I’d like to play an advanced piano version of “Don’t Stop Me Know” by Queen. I love the energy of this song.  

Diatonic: When I talk to professional photographers, a lot of them tell me that because photography is their job they rarely find the time and most importantly passion to take pictures just for themselves. What’s that like for you? Are music and playing the piano still something you enjoy, or do you prefer to stay away from the instrument when you’re not working?

Jonas Gössling: Honestly, this is a challenging topic for me as well. I still enjoy playing, but the stress of  running the business sometimes kills my passion. But when I do take time to play, I often feel relieved because I feel that the passion comes back quickly. When this happens I feel the purpose behind my work even stronger. 

Diatonic: Let’s talk about flowkey. Musically, how has the App changed over the years? And could you describe first of all how the team selects new pieces for the App?

Jonas Gössling: When we launched we just had a couple dozen songs you could choose from. And there were mostly played by myself. Now we have thousands of songs from literally all genres and a professional team of pianists and teachers. The quality of the arrangements and the selection of music has improved a lot.  We also added a course section to the app with step-by-step lessons to learn about notes, chords, technique, and more. 

The selection process is a mix of researching market trends, looking at requests by our users, and our own judgment of what fits. 

Diatonic: Are there also pieces that might not be on everyone’s radar, but that you, yor co-founders or the team particularly like – and thus integrate into the App?

Jonas Gössling: We try to offer the songs people want to play. However, for a time we released a lot of classical music just to have a more complete offering. 

Diatonic: I would assume that a lot of beginners that use flowkey are adults. Can you share what you think is crucial when picking-up the piano after childhood? What should anyone wanting to start in 2023 focus on?

Jonas Gössling: You can still learn as an adult, it even has advantages because you can do it for your own enjoyment without pressure and you can be more conscious about your practice.

It’s important to have a daily practice routine and to learn the right practice approach. It’s incredible how much you can achieve if you really stick to an effective practice.

Diatonic: I learned to play the piano with an online course. I’ve also used flowkey quite a lot; and one of the things people kept and keep telling me, even those who can’t even play the piano is that “you always need to get a real teacher”. Let me say that I do agree to a certain point, learning to play with a teacher is marvelous. But for me the internet and Apps like flowkey are superb for starting and for keeping practice and learning new pieces fun and interesting.
What’s your take on this?

Jonas Gössling: If you have enough time, commitment and money, nothing beats a great teacher. But it’s actually quite difficult to find good teachers. I think that apps and online courses can offer a flexible way of learning, and the quality of the products and offerings keeps improving. Actually I’ve seen a lot of astonishing results from people who learned from apps and videos.

Diatonic: Two things that entrepreneurship and learning an instrument have in common, at least in my opinion, is that it’s crucial to show up every day – meaning that discipline and sticking with the task beats talent almost every time. Could you comment how entrepreneurship has felt for you personally so far? What were some of the success factors for flowkey? 

Jonas Gössling: I love being a founder and creating something from nothing. However, my challenge is to manage my own psychology and not lose the fun. I always have to remind myself to not take things too seriously and be playful – both in entrepreneurship and in music.

Diatonic: Startups and musicians rely on their audience. You need to find a market, and people need to discover and talk about you. What did you do to find your first customers?

Jonas Gössling: During our first years we mostly grew through partnerships with big Youtube Piano Channels and SEO. We also did some PR in Germany, for example we took part in the show “Die Höhle der Löwen” (editor’s note: The German version of Shark Tank), which increased our brand awareness. 

Diatonic: With flowkey … how important is technology VS musicality? Meaning how does the team make sure that technically the App is superb and working, but that on the other hand musically all pieces are recorded beautifully and interesting as well ? 

Jonas Gössling: Our content & creative team is as strong as our dev team. So we really focus a lot on both sides of the coin. I would say the combination of great content and great technology is really our biggest strength. 

Diatonic: What do you do internally in terms of music? Is music playing all over the office, are there pianos everywhere or is that something that happens naturally anyway? What’s your culture like in that regard?

Jonas Gössling: There’s a piano in almost every meeting room and almost everyone has a great passion for music. At company parties we never have to book a DJ, because there are so many talented DJs in our team. It’s amazing.


Diatonic: As a musician one of the toughest mind games I think is to not always look ahead: Larger audiences, more listeners, more of what we perceive as success. What does that journey feel like for you at flowkey? Are you focusing on business goals a lot? Or what does progress or growth look like for you?

Jonas Gössling: This is a very important and deep topic that I’ve thought about a lot. Focusing too much on goals kills the fun and makes everything feel heavy. But you also want to evolve and grow. It’s important to find the right balance for yourself or for your business.

I think a good rule of thumb is to honestly ask yourself if you feel motivated and have fun at what you do. If not, something is out of balance and you need to re-adjust or change things. 

Diatonic: Last one: What’s your dream piano? Is there an instrument that you would love to have at home one day?

Jonas Gössling: I’d have nothing against a Steinway concert grand ;)


Diatonic: Me neither! Thanks again for taking the time for this interview, Jonas!